Knockout Price

$22 Million Will Get You The Farmington Mansion Where Mike Tyson And Ben Sisti Once Slept

April 06, 1997|By JANE GORDON; Special to The Courant

FARMINGTON — In this historic Connecticut town where elegant and stately homes are more appreciated than sprawling and extravagant ones, a 61-room estate sits empty, like a model home that is often viewed but hardly used.

The mansion has housed notorious real estate promoter Benjamin Sisti and his family, a somewhat anonymous Lithuanian businessman and most recently, heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson and various members of his entourage.

Thick in controversy after Sisti, co-founder of the former Colonial Realty, built it in 1987, the home is now back in the news, this time for an eye-popping asking price: $22 million.

Only one other residential property in the state has reached those proportions. The Whitehead estate in Greenwich, a Mediterranean- style villa on 10 acres overlooking Long Island Sound, initially listed for $22 million but sold for $13.7 million three years ago.

``Do you think they're asking $22 million just to draw attention to the property?'' asked Bill Andruss of Sotheby's International Realty in Greenwich, who brokered the Whitehead sale.

The former Sisti estate sold just last year for $2,765,000, to Rory Holloway, Tyson's co-manager, according to real estate records.

Over time, the house has become known as Tyson's, and the two Realtors handling the deal insist it is indeed the boxer's house, even though they acknowledge he lived in it for barely a week when it was first purchased.

That's just about as long as anybody has lived in it for the past year: The property manager, who lives in Hartford, and the cleaning crew have probably spent more accumulated time there than anyone else.

Celebrity cachet or no, Team Tyson says the stratospheric asking price is justified. The house is being offered for sale with furnishings and artwork included. Why, even real-estate mogul Donald Trump, when he visited the house during Mike Tyson's extravagant 30th birthday party last summer, reportedly told Tyson that he was impressed with the purchase.

``He mentioned to Mike that he did a great job with the house,'' recalls Las Vegas listing agent Mike Farris, who has handled real estate deals for the former world heavyweight boxing champion. Farris said Trump told Tyson, `` `You stole it' at that price.''

The house was bought as an investment, Farris says, and at a severely discounted rate. To call it a house is to call Walt Disney World an amusement park -- after visiting the mansion, you may look at your present house in a whole new, inadequate way.

The marketing team, which includes Farris of Century 21-MoneyWorld in Las Vegas and Curtiss Clemens of Century 21 Clemens & Sons in Hartford, defends the asking price, saying the house had fallen into disrepair from its lack of use, and that Tyson invested millions of dollars in improvements and changes.

Tyson hired a decorator to furnish the house, which was left vacant and unfurnished by the previous owner, Lithuanian businessman Romas Marcinkevicius. Although Farris declined to say how much was spent decorating the mansion, he said he would provide those numbers to serious buyers.

The sprawling abode has a decorator's touch -- rooms furnished all in white, one room furnished in black. Original artwork now adorns walls in every room, which are furnished with contemporary pieces that give the mansion the air of a modern resort.

Other changes: The tennis court behind the house became a regulation-sized basketball court and the house's second indoor pool was drained and covered to become a dance floor for the nightclub Tyson installed on the lower floor of the house.

The nightclub, Club TKO, comes complete with a disc jockey stand, club tables and chairs, a sophisticated sound system, a bar and a movie projection screen. A 1,500-square- foot health club and weight room -- the size of some houses -- also was added on the lower level.

The full-size racquetball court must be undergoing some sort of identity crisis; when first built, it had a racket with large letters reading ``Sisti'' painted on its wood floor. That's gone, and ``Team Tyson'' is emblazoned on the court's right-hand wall.

There are more than 100 telephones in the house, and electronic equipment -- from stereos to television sets -- has been added to most rooms. The house has a lighting system that enables residents to turn lights on in various rooms of the house from one location.

In the wall-to-wall-windowed master bedroom, a bank of four television sets sits atop large windows overlooking the rear of the house and across from the master bed. Not in the mood for TV? A movie screen pops out from above the TV bank and rolls open by remote control. The projector is in a bank above the bed.

A remote control also manipulates the window blinds, so all one needs to do is lift a finger to get sunlight or get rid of it, watch TV and movies, and phone the stockbroker. Or something like that.

The house has eight garage bays, and in one extended garage, a black stretch limousine sits, unused.